Microsoft Sinks a Data Center on Purpose, and Other News

As spring gives way to the lazy days of summer, here’s a look at the top stories making the rounds in the data center world. From a fully-submerged data center in Scotland to a setback for Apple in Ireland to Instor’s Jim Levin’s thoughts on the power of partnerships, here’s what’s happening.

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Data Center News Roundup for June 8, 2018

Ah, Scotland. The land of misty mountains, green pastures, peaty whiskeys, rugged men in kilts and, of course, underwater data centers. Microsoft is aiming to add a new chapter to Bonnie Scotland’s history by sinking a submarine data center off the coast of the Orkney Islands, which are located off the northernmost tip of the country. Dubbed Project Natick, the data center is designed to bring faster internet service to even the most remote parts of the world without the environmental impact of a traditional data center. Built-in pipes will help move cool seawater around the vessel, providing for natural thermal control. Mashable calls the project a “moonshot,” but if successful, it could change the game. Read the piece here.

File this under unfortunate, but inevitable news. After three years of frustrating delays, Apple has canceled its plans for a $1 billion data center in Athenry, Ireland. The project was ultimately doomed by red tape and objections from locals, but Apple remains bullish on Ireland as a major data center player within Europe. In fact, the company still employs more than 5,500 people in Ireland and has had a presence there since 1980, with no plans to give up on the Emerald Isle any time soon. Learn more here.“

Sole tenant node” service is now being offered by Google Cloud to select customers, according to Data Center Knowledge. Each node includes a hypervisor for single or multiple VMs, DC Knowledge reports. Aimed at companies looking to comply with specific regulations such as corporate policy, the service lets clients book space for hardware in Google’s cloud centers with the ability to launch cloud VMs. See the full story here.

Data Center Knowledge also posted one of its popular Industry Perspectives columns from VIRTUS managing director Darren Watkins on why the buck stops with data center operators when it comes to security breaches. In a post titled “Why Public Trust Starts in Data Centers,” Watkins outlines his argument, saying, “IT departments need to deploy more forward-looking capacity management to be able to proactively meet the demands that come with processing, storing and analyzing machine generated data” in an effort to restore public trust in network security. Read more of his take here.

Speaking of thought leadership, Instor’s own Jim Levin penned a recent Voices of the Industry column on Data Center Frontier titled, “Don’t Go It Alone: The Value of Trusted Data Center Partnerships.” In it, Levin highlights the value of knowing your own strengths and admitting when it’s time to bring in a partner. A snippet: “Let’s face it – none of us is an island. At some level, we all need to depend on valued and trusted partners to hit our goals. It’s not about individual weaknesses – it’s about leveraging the collective strengths of your partners to give your customers what they need to get ahead in today’s increasingly competitive environment. At the end of the day, each industry player is looking to scale its infrastructure. Even the top companies in the Fortune 500 leverage such partnerships to meet the needs of their end users every single day.”

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Complete Data Center design and infrastructure construction services for new data center build-outs, expansions, fit-ups, relocations and migration to colocations. Full service project management, equipment installation, monitoring of heating and cooling as well as capacity planning. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Instor designs and installs data center infrastructure solutions throughout the U.S. and Europe.